• 1960: In the inaugural World 600 in 1960, Don O'Dell's Pontiac smashed the driver's door of Lenny Page's Chevy. Lenny Page was lucky to even survive the impact, and was in critical condition afterward. Reporter
Chris Economaki rushed to the scene and applied
CPR until safety crews arrived. He was later credited with saving Lenny's life. • 1961: The race saw numerous crashes, including a very bad collision involving Reds Kagle, who lost a leg when his Ford smashed through the guardrail in Turn Three.
David Pearson lost almost all of a multi-lap lead when a tire popped coming to the white flag but finished the race as winner, his first in Grand National racing. • 1964:
Fireball Roberts suffered a hard crash in this race, resulting in an inferno. Roberts was severely burned and would die of complications on July 2 of that year. • 1974: The race was shortened to 540 miles because of the nation's short-lived fuel crisis, which was won by
David Pearson over
Richard Petty. The lead changed 37 times between Pearson, Petty,
Cale Yarborough,
Buddy Baker, and
Donnie Allison, the most lead changes in the event's history to that point. • 1975: Richard Petty, after years of frustration, finally collected his first victory at the World 600, proceeding to lap the field. Additionally; another future seven-time champion,
Dale Earnhardt, made his Cup Series debut; finishing 21st, one position ahead of his future boss
Richard Childress. • 1976:
Bruton Smith resumed full control of the speedway with the resignation of former track president Richard Howard. In a move to boost promotion of the race,
Janet Guthrie was entered in a car wrenched by
Ralph Moody. Pearson edged Petty again after a cut tire dropped Yarborough off the lead lap. • 1977: Two racing legends won races on the same day.
Richard Petty win his second World 600, while
A. J. Foyt was winning his fourth at
Indy. • 1978:
Darrell Waltrip won the first of his record five 600s in 1978 in a race-long six-car shootout; on the final lap
Benny Parsons and
David Pearson crashed. The lead changed 43 times, the most competitive 600 to that point of its history. • 1979: The race saw the most lead changes (59) in the race's history.
Darrell Waltrip took the win over
Richard Petty and rookie
Dale Earnhardt. • 1980: The race lasted seven hours due to 14 caution flags and two lengthy red flags for rain. Multiple tire failures helped lead to an epidemic of wrecks; at Lap 275 Dale Earnhardt blew a tire and his spin caught up
Bobby Allison,
Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson. Waltrip had the lead but in the final 20 laps was challenged by
Benny Parsons; the two battled with the lead changing some seven times before Parsons edged Waltrip by a car length. • 1982: Neil Bonnett won his first World 600 driving the famous No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. • 1983:
Jim Vandiver's final race, with Neil Bonnett winning his second World 600 driving the No. 75 Rahmoc-Hodgdon Chevrolet. • 1985: Considerable pre-race hype surrounded the race as
Bill Elliott entered with a chance to win
a million-dollar cash bonus for a "small slam" of the sport's four majors. Elliott won the pole position and led 81 laps, but faded to 18th at the finish.
Darrell Waltrip took the victory, a key victory en route to the championship. Waltrip (who won
the inaugural All-Star race a day earlier) nearly missed the race after a car/engine swap controversy with NASCAR Director of Competition Dick Beatty. Elliott went on to win the Winston Million later in the season at Darlington but never won the 600 in his career. • 1988: In the middle of a tire war between the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and
Hoosier Racing Tire (now part of
Continental AG), multiple tire failures marred the previous week's
All-Star race, all involving Goodyear. Goodyear withdrew the tires originally designated for the 600 and substituted a harder compound. Only
Dave Marcis stayed with the harder Goodyear tires for the 600. But during the 600, Hoosier tire failures were rampant.
Darrell Waltrip survived and edged
Rusty Wallace for the win, becoming the first four-time winner of the race. • 1989:
Darrell Waltrip becomes the only driver to win the event for a record 5th time (1978, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1989). After also winning the season-opening
Daytona 500, Waltrip now had won two of the
sport's four majors, setting himself up for the million-dollar bonus for a small slam at Darlington. He would not be successful. (Waltrip had not won the final major, Darlington, and never took the checkered flag to win the Southern 500; his final career win, at that race in 1992, took place when he took the lead during pit stops on Lap 293 and the race was suspended by a red flag after 298 laps for rain, after which it was never completed.) • 1992: The race saw a controversial finish. Dale Earnhardt emerged from late green-flag pit stops with the lead after trailing by some three seconds entering the pits; there were complaints from several teams, notably
Morgan–McClure Motorsports whose driver
Ernie Irvan finished second, that Earnhardt had broken NASCAR's mandated pit road speed limit. This race, the last Coca-Cola 600 to be run entirely in daylight, marked the only victory for Earnhardt in 1992. • 1993: Earnhardt was plagued by controversy again by first getting busted for speeding on pit road, then penalized a lap for aggressive driving after spinning out the lapped car of Greg Sacks. On a pit stop, he was penalized for not having all 5 lug nuts tightened, when in fact all 5 were tight. NASCAR threw the caution after the debacle, but Earnhardt made up the two laps he was down to take the lead late in the race on his way to his third Coca-Cola 600 win. This was also the first Coca-Cola 600 to start late in the day and end under the lights, which has been done since. • 1994: Second-year driver
Jeff Gordon won the first race of his career. His team gambled on the final pit stop, taking on only two tires, giving him a better track position. • 1995: The race was a dramatic affair as the lead changed 32 times, the most since 1988, and the battle for the lead became a spirited multi-lap affair between
Bobby Labonte, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, and
Sterling Marlin. Labonte punted Earnhardt out of the lead late in the race and sweated out late green-flag stops for fuel to take the win, his first in Winston Cup. • 1999:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his Winston Cup Series debut in this race. • 2000: Talk this year was of
Dale Earnhardt Jr. trying to be the first rookie to win the race, winning the pole and dominating all of the phases of the race. However,
Matt Kenseth became the first rookie to win the race after holding off
Bobby Labonte over the final laps. It was Kenseth's first career win. • 2001: While
Jeff Burton won the race,
Tony Stewart stunned the racing world by successfully pulling off the full distances of the
Memorial Day Double. • 2005: During this race, a new record for the most cautions of any NASCAR Cup Series race was set at 22 cautions. In addition, there was a red flag late in the race because of debris. On the last lap,
Jimmie Johnson slid past
Bobby Labonte in turn four, claiming the checkered flag by inches. In doing so he became the first driver to win three consecutive Coca-Cola 600s. He would finish a distant second to
Kasey Kahne the following year. • 2007: In one of NASCAR's biggest upsets,
Casey Mears won.
Tony Stewart led with ten laps remaining, hoping to win his first Coca-Cola 600, but had to pit for fuel with 8 laps left, giving the lead to
Dale Earnhardt Jr. until he ran out of fuel.
Denny Hamlin led with seven laps remaining until he also ran out of fuel. Mears, driving for Hendrick Motorsports in the 25, took the lead for six laps remaining to win, running out of fuel just after crossing the finish line. The entire podium consisted of
J. J. Yeley (2nd) and
Kyle Petty (third). It was the final podium result for all three drivers.
Reed Sorenson (4th) and
Brian Vickers (5th) completed the top five. • 2009: Although nicknamed the 24 Hours of Charlotte, it was the shortest run of the race in its history. The race was delayed from Sunday to Monday due to a rainstorm, and the following day, more rain forced the race to end at only 227 laps, although it took a six and a half hour marathon to reach that point, due to frequent interruptions by competition cautions and three red flags, including a two-hour period under the red flag which ended the race and declared
David Reutimann the winner, one of few drivers who opted not to pit under the final caution. Reutimann was the second surprise first-time winner in 2009 after
Brad Keselowski's win at
Talladega the month before. • 2011: The 2011 running, at 603 miles, was the longest distance in NASCAR history at the time.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., trying to break a long winless drought, ran out of gas coming off of turn 4, and
Kevin Harvick scored his third win of 2011. • 2013: The 2013 running was red-flagged 126 laps in, when a cable that supported a
Skycam used by
Fox Sports over the front stretch of the race track, snapped and fell onto the racing surface. Several spectators were injured as a result of the failure, and several race cars were damaged. The race restarted but was red-flagged again on lap 325 for a large wreck entering turn one.
Kevin Harvick won the race for the second time when he took two tires on the final caution and passed
Kasey Kahne, who did not pit. • 2014:
Jimmie Johnson won his fourth Coca-Cola 600, and first since 2005. During the race, the world's biggest photo was captured. The 348-
gigapixel image captured during the race is 70,000 times bigger than a standard
self-portrait and allows each and every one of the more than 100,000 fans in the stands who attended the event to zoom in on the 360-degree image and find themselves. • 2015:
Carl Edwards won his first Coca-Cola 600 and first while driving for
Joe Gibbs Racing. • 2016:
Martin Truex Jr. started on the pole and led an event record 392 of 400 laps and a series record 588 of 600 miles en route to his first win at the Coca-Cola 600. Additionally, the race was the fastest-ran Coca-Cola 600 in history at an average speed of 160.655, clocking in at 3 hours, 44 minutes, and 5 seconds. • 2017: First race to run in four stages rather than three.
Austin Dillon, running on fumes, held off
Kyle Busch to score his first career Cup win. The race also marked the return of the #3 to victory lane for the first time since
Dale Earnhardt scored his final career victory at Talladega in 2000. Just before halfway, a rainstorm happened to delay the race for an hour and 30 mins. With the delay, the race finished at 12:30 am EDT on Memorial Day Monday.
Danica Patrick leads 7 laps becoming the first woman to lead the Coca-Cola 600. • 2018:
Kyle Busch dominated the race by winning sweeping all the stages, and leading 377 of the 400 laps to score his first career win at Charlotte, making him the first driver to win a race at every racetrack in the Cup Series that he has competed at, and every track that is on the current schedule. • 2019: 21-year-old
William Byron was the youngest driver ever to take pole position for the Coca-Cola 600. With 16 caution flags and an elapsed time of 4 hours and 50 minutes, this running of the race became the longest since 2005, since surpassed by 2022’s running. • 2020: With government restrictions over
COVID-19 pandemic affecting all sports across America, NASCAR continued after a two-month absence, but it also prohibited fans in the stands.
Chase Elliott looked like he was going to win the event until his teammate William Byron spun bringing out the caution with just two laps to go. Elliott decided to pit with others while
Brad Keselowski stayed out inheriting the lead for a green-white-checkered finish. Elliott charged from 11th to 3rd with Keselowski giving
Roger Penske his second 600 win over Jimmie Johnson on a day in which the Indianapolis 500 was postponed due to the pandemic. In post-race tech, Johnson's car violated rear-end alignments disqualifying him from 2nd to dead last (40th) and lifting Elliott to second. Rain delayed the event by an hour and forty minutes just 50 laps in, with the checkered-flag waving at just past midnight on Memorial Day. The race ending in overtime broke the record for the longest NASCAR race run set in 2011. Keselowski crossed the start/finish line after completing 405 laps/607.5 miles, breaking the 2011 record of 402 laps/603 miles. • 2022: The 2022 running, at 619.5 miles, brought on by two overtime finishes, broke the record for the longest NASCAR race by 12 miles. With 18 caution flags and an elapsed time of five hours and 13 minutes, this running surpassed 2019 as the longest running of the race since 2005, coming 46 seconds of race time shy of being longer than that race. • 2025: The 2025 race marked history, as
Ross Chastain won the race from a backup car. Chastain set the record for the lowest starting position of an eventual winner in the history of the Coca-Cola 600. ==First-time winners==